This is probably one of the hardest puzzles I’m
going to write about in this blog – not because it’s difficult to solve
(although it definitely is!), but because there is so much absolutely
fantastic “stuff” that I can’t talk about because
it would totally spoil the surprise for other puzzlers getting to play
with this puzzle… so let’s see how I can talk about the former without
committing the heinous crime of the latter.
Jack Krijnen has been designing and making puzzles
for years. I look forward to chatting to him at the Dutch Cube Day each
year (something I was gutted to miss this year!) as he always has some
wonderfully made little gems available at
stupidly cheap prices – it seems he makes puzzles for the love of it,
not for the money…
Over the years I’ve acquired several lovely little
burrs and a couple of his burr sets, all in Jack’s own unique dinky form
factor, as well as a number of fun n-ary puzzles from him.
Earlier this year he sent up the bat-signal that he
was working on his first puzzle box design… several milliseconds later I
registered my interest. A short while later the Royal Mail delivered a
box, somewhat less than lovingly, to my front
door… sadly it appeared that someone had played football with the
contents of the package, although on the outside, there didn’t seem to
be much damage… inside however, quite a lot of the detailing that must
have taken Jack absolute hours, had been reduced
to wooden scraps. Fearful that I might damage the box, I exchanged a
few emails with Jack and he encouraged me to puzzle on – so I did,
albeit with a slightly heavy heart.
I made a little progress quite rapidly, not
entirely as a result of the damage, but it probably provided a couple of
clues that others unafflicted might not have seen quite as readily…
I found myself having blown the bloody doors off
the thing, with a couple of tools in hand, and no apparent way to
proceed… my little metal rod and my wooden key didn’t seem to be very
useful, even though I’d found some keyhole-shaped orifices.
At this point things sort of came to a halt – I
went off to IPP38, spent a few weeks with my puzzling friends and didn’t
think much about the puzzle box gently mocking my inability to progress
– while somewhere in the back of my mind I
had a niggling doubt about it perhaps being damaged internally as well…
At this point my friend Nigel asks how I’m doing on
it – he’s stuck too, it transpires…I can’t help him much and over the
course of a few days he gets a nudge or two and once the dam has broken,
rapidly becomes a massive fan of this puzzle…
telling me along the way that I NEED to SOLVE this thing – because I
WILL LOVE IT!
I need several more nudges from him; in fact it’s
probably fair to say that for one specific part I need encouragement to
keep trying – and indeed to simplify what I’m trying to do! Once I’m
through that bit, an entire new world opens up in
front of me – quite literally, and I understand exactly why Nigel (and
many others) are being so darn encouraging about it… the next phase
comes as a wonderful surprise and it’s an absolute delight to solve…
…leading to the final reveal, and something I think
I shall refer to as Jack’s Revenge on puzzlers for solving his puzzle
box – inside there is an 18-piece burr, unassembled known as the
“Assembler’s Challenge” – with good reason! Seeing
where the pieces need to go isn’t the main challenge here – physically
getting them there using only the single pair of paws most of us are
endowed with, IS however, a MAJOR CHALLENGE.
I am a huge fan… there’s a bit toward the start of
the solution that is tough – well I think it’s tough – some of my
puzzling friends have almost breezed through it without slowing down
(yup, Louis!) whereas others have needed the nudges
I required… but everybody loves the reveal and the bit in the middle –
that is superb. 
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